Amazon wishlist

Dog death reminds us they’re animals

Fair bit of talk this week about the couple who left their dog at a dog daycare and were initially lied to about his fate: the small shih-tzu had not slipped outside and wandered away, he’d been killed by two other dogs when no humans were watching.

We’re sometimes harshly reminded that animals we think are fully domesticated are actually large, unpredictable predators, like the husky that killed a baby in Alberta this week. We also note that primates are clever enough to try to lie their way out of trouble. I don’t think there are any surprises here.

Dogs are more scavengers than predators. And actions that appear to be unpredictable are often just misunderstood. Of course, small children should never be left unattended with any animals, since a child’s actions can be unpredictable to a dog.

Maybe yes, maybe no. I’m no expert, but I’m pretty sure dogs can and do kill rabbits, for example, and this is by far not the first time I’ve heard of larger dogs killing smaller members of their own species. That goes well beyond scavenging.

Uh scavengers *do* kill other animals both for food and out of defense. The difference is that predators do this as their *primary* (and often only) source of food. Dogs stopped being predators when they became dogs, i.e. when they branched off from wolves and started hanging around human settlements (easy sources of food for a scavenger).

Anyway I was just reacting to the somewhat alarmist tone in your post. Of course dogs can be dangerous, but it does no one any service by conflating them with *real* predators that are much more dangerous and by and large should not be owned as pets.

There are few animals more domesticated than dogs. Dogs, along with cows, goats, sheep, and a few other species, are basically the definition of domesticated animals.

Sorry for the vehemence of my reply – it’s probably just because I usually find myself in complete agreement with your posts.

I didn’t set out to slander dogs, but it seems clear from news stories that they’re not quite in the same category as the herbivores you mention in terms of domesticity. But I don’t mean to offend or get into a scrap about it.

Heh yeah they aren’t cows, but dog attacks are *heavily* sensationalized in the press. There are at least 3.5 million dogs in Canada, and there are 1 or 2 dog attacks that result in fatalities *per year*[1]. Surely you don’t judge the severity of a problem from news stories alone!

And actually, cows do kill as many people as dogs, at least in the U.S.[2]… I’m not trying to troll here – I just find it unfortunate when things like this are blown out of proportion. I am sure you didn’t set out to slander dogs (or dog owners), but feeding the hysteria about dog attacks does them a disservice.

Hardly any dog attacks happen in parks. From [1] above, “Fatalities … were disproportionately high in rural/remote Canada.” There are certain factors that make dog attacks much more likely (unneutered males, dogs left restrained in back yards for long periods with no supervision, etc.).

But again, my point is that dog attacks aren’t that common, especially ones that result in fatalities. There are literally 5-10 times as many deaths per year attributed to lightning! [3] Although I guess it depends on your definition of common In 1996, dog attacks made up 1% of reported child injuries–and only 4.5% of those attacks resulted in hospitalization.[4] 0.045% of childhood injuries are from dog attacks and require the child to be hospitalized. What an epidemic!

(Btw I was bitten by a dog as a child while at a friend’s house in the country. It was scary but I didn’t even need to go to the doctor. I barely remember it now.)

Yes, most definitely, dogs can be *dangerous* and there are some people that should be reminded of this. Dog attacks on children tend to occur at home when the children are unsupervised “and, therefore, up to a certain point, [are] preventable.”[1]

But in light of this, if you still think there’s nothing wrong with calling dogs “unpredictable predators”, I suppose there’s nothing else I can say.

It’s funny – the fact that there is generally less interaction between people and cows than between people and dogs, combined with the stats saying that as many people are killed by cows as by dogs would seem to imply that cows are actually *more* dangerous than dogs! :-P